Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Azaadi ki Aor (Towards Freedom)

In the late 1980s, it was a usual Saturday evening. Back then, on DoorDarshan, they used to show a Hindi movie every Saturday at 5:30 in the evening. We had looked in the morning newspaper to see whether the movie that evening would be any interesting. To our disappointment, we saw that instead of a familiar sounding film name or any familiar actors’ names the movie had a strange name with no names of actors. Moreover, it seemed like it was going to be a (boring, I can’t believe at that age a film on freedom fighters sounded boring to me) film on freedom regardless of the fact it was not the time around 15th of August (Indian Independence Day) or 26th January (Republic Day). And when the names of the actors also weren’t listed, the family figured it wouldn’t be worth watching the movie that evening. Our lady maid, who also happened to be a BIG movie buff, usually joined us for movies every week. She also left early that evening thinking it wasn’t worth staying back to watch such boring movie.

Finally, when the movie was starting, we decided to watch the beginning of the movie just to see whether it was going to be related to freedom fighters. To our utter surprise, we saw it started out with the life of a madaari/conjurer, who owned two monkeys named Shankar & Gauri, and made these animals do different kinds of tricks for his living. Most of us were not interested in continuing watching the film but all of a sudden we realized, the animals in this film had human voices. They spoke and shared their feelings with the audience like us humans. Often when the madaari treated the animals very rudely, and in despicable manner, not feeding them when they had worked very hard and practically treating them like vermin, the monkeys talked and shared their dislike towards their owner. The movie was getting more and more interesting now and as the audience we were becoming more curious to find out what the rest of the story was going to be like. Eventually in the film, the pair decides to give up on their master and breaks free from his slavery. That’s when we realized, the main actor and actress of this movie were not humans, but two monkeys, who talked and shared feelings in even better way than what the humans can do.

The entire movie was a journey of their freedom, freedom from human kind and their mean behavior. On their struggle-filled journey, they end up helping out and freeing many other animals who were in same situation as theirs (dependent on and slave to humans) including a snake, an elephant and many others. With snake, it's an amazing incident, because one instance the monkeys help snake become free from his master and later in the forest when one of the monkeys is drowning in puddle of mud, the snake they had saved earlier unites his community members and saves the monkey. At once instance, our main hero and heroine get separated from each other and go through very painful time that even the audience can feel and relate to. And then at another instance, they even stop themselves from being hurtful towards other humans, and help them because they realized it wouldn't be worth seeing anyone suffer or to be revengeful. There were so many instances during the movie where I remember literally bursting into tears just looking at helpless animals were going through just for their survival. At the end of the film, as I vaguely remember now, one monkey, throwing away the clothes their human master had provided to them, says “inn kapdo mein insaan ki boo aa rahi hai”. I admire the dialog writer who wrote the dialogs for this film.

The film showed a sarcastic view of the inconsiderate behavior of human kind for treating animals badly. The film gave me totally different perspective about animals after I watched it. And, I am so happy today to find out that this film had won the National Film Award (Golden Lotus Award) for Best Children's Film award in 1986. I really wish I get to see this marvelous film again one day!

I had watched Azaadi Ki Or back in 1987 when in class 3 when our class was taken out to the theater to watch it. I had loved it thoroughly and have remembered this movie ever since. Please, please if somebody knows how I can get this movie let me know.

Krishnaprasad, no idea, sir as to where to buy the film. I am planning to contact Door Darshan to see whether they can help find the film from somewhere. If I do find info, I will share it on here. Thank you for your comment.

Patel, thank you for dropping by. As of now, no idea about how to acquire the movie. Watch this place for an update.

Gaurav, thank you. :) that is indeed a good memory. Mine's also very vivid. I remember it as if it was yesterday even though it's been almost two decades now. Like they say, things we observe as a child remain with us forever.

Thanks for bringing back sweet memories. I remember this movie very well and have been trying to find a place to purchase a copy. The scene I remember the most was where Shankar is drunk and has given up hopes on Gauri who is with Gabbar. She says "mein Shankar ki hoon aur Shankar ki hi rahungi".....man that was class!!! If any reader has been able to track a copy of the movie for download or sale, could you please post a comment on this blog?

Vinod, hi! welcome to my blog. I have been searching for it for months now. If I find out where to get it, I will surely share it with you. Hopefully, I am close to achieving that goal. Thank you for reminding that dialog. It makes me feel all nostalgic and sad, in a good way. Thank you for your comment.

Guys..thanks to the internet, I had forgotten the name of the movie but the story was still fresh in my mind.your blog reminded me of my beautiful childhood. I wish I could find this movie and with this I go back to my childhood again.I will let you all know if I find the movie.

Kanaan - Saw this movie when I was a kid (almost ~20 yrs ago). It was so engaging. I loved it. Sincerely thank you for posting about it. It was so difficult to find information on this movie. BTW please let us know in case you are able to find out if we can view this movie now.

I need this film. I've been waiting to give my girl friend this movie since the time she mentioned about this to me. I contacted Door Darshan , Films Division but there wasnt any luck. Please let me know if you get some info on this !

I truly am a fan of this movie - i still remember Shankar and Gauri and would love to have a copy of the movie too..maybe if we all send a request of how many copies we require...someone might try to find it for us....

Anon, you're right. It is indeed a really good movie, and a very well made at that.

Nitin, thank you. I am very happy to know this film has such a high number of fans. I have contacted the producer a few months back but haven't heard from him. May be it's about time I contacted him again.

Anon, Hi! yes, I managed to contact all of those folks and they were very nice to help me connect with other folks who could help. Now I'm waiting to hear back from the producer of the film. Hopefully, we all can get copies of this film some day. My fingers are crossed.

Genny, thank you! I really do hope, wish and pray that we all get hold of this movie, soon.

GUYS...I have been thinking about this movie for a while(years now)all i can think of is gauri and shankar,countless tries on torrent searches ending here..amazing how a few people form the same generation cherished and wanting to watch this movie..not a multi million dollar movie but it just left an impression in our hearts..Please if anybody finds a copy let us know..Thankyou fellas keep up the search.

raviraj, thank you for stopping by. I'd also love to watch this movie. I don't quite remember whether there was any song in the film. But I want to say there was.

PRADAWAN, thanks for your comment. I'm searching for the correct email address of Central Board for this. Hoping my efforts are fruitful. It's been two years now since I have been emailing the film folks. Lets see what our luck brings us.

Okay, friends. Here's a mini update. Because of the South Indian appearance of the actors in the movie, I'd always wondered if this was really a Hindi movie at all. Well, after a little investigation, I found out that 'Aazadi ki Ore' is in fact the dubbed version of a Malayalam movie 'Kadinte Makkal' (1986) by P.S. Prakash. Here are two pictures, which will confirm this: http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/8668/kadintemakkal01w.jpg and http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8232/kadintemakkal02w.jpg. This movie somehow doesn't seem to be very popular and so, needless to say, I could not find any direct download link to this movie or torrent, nor could I find any online shopping site where VCD or DVD of this movie is available. Seems to be a forgotten movie, sadly. Since our childhood memories are attached with this movie, I'd thought that if not Hindi let me at least watch the Malayalam version along with subtitles, if any. But, tough luck! :(

If any fortune hunter manages to get this Malayalam movie (with subtitles), please do upload on the net and provide the links or at least inform as to where it could be found. We would be really, really grateful. The hunt is on...

Krishnaprasad, thank you so much for such extensive research and sharing the results.

I really appreciate you sharing the posters of the films. They are precious and bring back fond memories. Unfortunately, I can not read the writing as I don't know the language, but this message or yours tells me we are very close to achieving our goals.

Let me share my timelines and research with you. I was hoping to share this later when I could actually get hold of the producer's contact information but I guess we may never know the end of this search.

May 2008 - I send 3 emails to three different people at Door Darshan for this film.August 2008 - No response from two of those people, third person responds saying that "said film was produced by National Film Development corp.(NFDC) and can be bought from them".August 2008 - I contact NDFC chairman requesting the info.September 2008 - NDFC general manager responds back to my query saying "this film does not belong to NFDC and Corporation does not have any rights of this film. We understand that this film has been produced by a South Indian Producer. It is better that you may kindly contact the offices of the Central Board of Film Certification, having their regional offices at Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad etc, who will be able to provide you the address of the producer from whom you can get the correct information about the availability of VCD/DVD of this film. The addresses of Regional offices are available on CBFC Website: www.cbfcindia.tn.nic.in"September 2008 - I sent emails to CBFC's rediffmail address and tried to search for their alternate contact information but haven't been able to get hold of them successfully. January 2010 - I attempted to contact CBFC again, but no luck. Their emails don't bounce back so it is a valid email ID. I'm waiting for the day I see an email from them telling me where I can send the money so they can send me a DVD of this film. :)

As you can see, the CBFC website does not work. Even their wikipedia entry says their website isn't working.

I wish I was able to walk in their office and talk to someone about this film. Some day...

If only the producer knew how many fans there are of his film; the fans who don't want to just download the movie, but will gladly pay money to purchase this film, if only they could. :)

Btw, thank you for sharing the links to the sites with other Doordarshan goodies. There's been some very creative work done by many masterminds back then. It's like hidden treasures. For me, Uranchoo name sounds familiar but nothing else.

Oops! My apologies. While writing that post, I'd initially typed 'Ms', changed it to 'Mr' considering it a mistake, and now I understand what was meant to be a correction was actually a mistake!

Coming back to the topic, I don't see any chance of that Malayalam movie being released in DVD with subtitles. So what we might get, if at all, would be a VCD and we won't understand a word of it - will just have to enjoy the movie as if it was a silent movie. And then, I don't see any chance of getting hold of that dubbed Hindi version, as mostly that would have been done for limited screening purposes only. This nut is a tough one to crack indeed! :D

hey i am going to have a kid and ever since i got pregnant i ave been trying to recollect the name of the movie which i did just to find there is no way i can get to watch it again.....keep trying.it feels good i m not the only one who thinks some movies just last forever in our memeories and somewhere we learn a lot from really simple stuff

Trupti, congrats for the baby news! :) That's so exciting. I am happy that this post and conversations were of help to you to find the movie name. Please don't give up, we will surely find this great film and I am positive it will be soon. :) Indeed an everlasting movie in our hearts and minds and a very simple one like you said. My family members and I just remembered this one over the weekend and felt blessed to have watched it even once. Thanks for sharing your feelings with us. Best wishes to you.

Hi All,i m looking for the movie for many years..no free downloads,but found this link http://idownloadunlimited.com/servers.asp?PID=32ff7181-5948-4b64-8248-07c4ec8f655e&ts=8/6/2010%206:05:22%20PM&q=monkey%20movie%20azadi%20ki%20aur%20free%20download&cr=1not sure if its is a genuine one

Anonymous, hi there. Thanks for the link but doesn't seem like a genuine website from the looks. I didn't create a login because I feel reluctant to register on such a website. Thanks for sharing the info though. I appreciate it.

kanan and all where it is really golden days it a good past which never comes, as i said old is gold, which never dies, and more u heat the gold it shine more, well only last option i found that We should tell moser bear to purchase the right of this movie or some other brand who can purchase the right and then sell in public, becoz (NFDC)or door darshan keep this gold in box. which has no use, if u release this movie our pure telant will come out and people can see and watch.. understand and let people see the legand of india. u should either show on tv some times specially on children day.. so that u know our new generation should watch .. well we should write the email to moserbear so he can purchase the same . i request kanan to do the needfulwell thanks to everyone for doing there best

NiTiN, hello. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your love for Azadi Ki Ore.I would love to have someone get the rights for this film as long as they don't temper with the original version and chop off any scenes. If they show it on TV again, it would be fantastic!! I think that's a brilliant idea. The producer can make big money and if he isn't interested in making money, he can donate it to a charity somewhere. But if he let the movie out, he will surely get a load of blessings that he truly deserves for making this gem of a movie. Thanks for the suggestion, Nitin. I will try to contact Moserbaer.

Well Kanan, i am writing to email to Boserbear, as well as some Reputed co. who are in to movie title, if they understand the importanance of this movie then might they do something,.. hope for the best

Well Kanan, i am writing to email to Boserbear, as well as some Reputed co. who are in to movie title, if they understand the importanance of this movie then might they do something,.. hope for the best

well every one we are just trying but we have not achived so far.. i went to one of Movie right co. he told me that we have to speak to big movie right co. who can approach to DD ((NFDC).. now sir we all should write email to moser bear... .. my single request has not importance but mutiple request will give them a way to look in broad way.. waiting for your all support and mark email what ever you send to me on lifeloveprem@gmail.com

I am so pleased to here the fan following for this amazing movie "zaadi ki Ore" -Wow ,such an awesome movie . But CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME DOWNLOAD THIS MOVIE FROM NET OR ELSE LEMMENO FROM WHERE TO GET THE CD ...Me & My entire family are anxiously waiting to see i once again...DOORDARSHAN ARE U LISTENING PLEASSSSEEEE HELP US!!!!!....Sunita Pawar (Pune)...

This is my favorite movie. I would prefer this movie more than all time hit SHOLAY. But my bad luck, it hard to find this movie either at video shop or internet. Can somebody help me and friends? My email address is jassi_mr@yahoo.com

tried everything on the net to find this movie!!! ALAS!! nothing worked.

then stumbled upon this link....LO AND BEHOLD... i am not alone!!still didnt get the movie but seems like there is hope !!(considering you good sirs has been at it for 2 years or so)

i will be delighted to see it,therefore ...if theres anything i can do to help you .... please let me know!! e-mail shukla.raul@gmail.com(P.S- not very connected to the net so it might be a while before i reply....)

Hi guys. I was looking for this same movie. My parents had it video taped from DD. And belive it or not we had whole mohalla ( neighborhood ) used to borrow. They are going to try to have it converted to DVD or VCd. Let's hope it works. I am excited.

oh my god! i was asking each & everyone about this movie, ia m very thankful to you for at least i know its title now "Azadi ki aur"..please somebody find it i have been searching for it for years. Dying to see it. please mail me at lovelishk@gmail.com. Please do inform me if anybody have it. Thanks

well requet to all loversi had given there details and nos. which are as followMoser Baer Entertainment Ltd., 23, Shah Industrial Estate, 2nd Floor, Off Veera Desai Road, Andheri (West), Mumbai - 400053 Tel: +91-22-42174500Fax: +91-22-26734658my single request to this co. will not work. i want all you to call on there nos ask there marketing department and tell them value of this movie, so might with multipal request they can do something ..

Hi I just had a word with Mr. Rajiv Jain's ( he heads National awards unit of ministry of I&B)office. They said it could be found in library of National film archives Pune. Now I live in Delhi. If anyone of you lives nearby law college road can go over there to ask a copy. Please dont forget to share as many ppl are waiting in case you get one.

oh my god .. can't believe people remember this movie and we have blog for this.. and I found this so late... I never forgot this movie, and actually tried finding things about it but never got anything.. thanks to Kanan google that today I got some information about this.. now next target is to get this movie on CD.. looks like tough task.. guys, thanks..-Abhi

Hello freinds, I am trying to coord the issue with National Film Archive of India Pune. However on prelim enquiry, seems their database not throwing up the name in the repository. Keeping fingers crossed. Will update you all on the progress.Surender

Does anyone remember a black and white movie regarding a magical chair which used to move on its own. I dont remember its name but I very vividly recall the scenes on the white wavering screen with the projector grring in the background....... and we all sitting on the ground watching this anaother amazing movie.....

OH my good, i don't believe this that there are so many fans for this movie, i was 8 year old when i saw this movie on dordarshan and still remember, so many times i discussed this with my loved once...now i am 32 now and i just want to show this movie to my 3.5 year old daughter.i was never know the title of the film only know about the characters name Gauri and Shankar..Thnks Kanan. thanks so much for the blog.. pls let me know if any one get this movie..

Yes'day I saw an article in the paper where columnist had shared a list of his 100 fav indian movies.I kind of started thinking of my own list and remembered this movie and then thought of searching for it. Now here I am, going through a rare moment of mixed emotions. On one hand its great to see such a huge following for a movie I thought very few would have remembered, on the second note its sad to see that chances of watching this movie again are grim.

Surender, thank you for your efforts. Really appreciated. I don't remember the magical chair film. May be someone will read your comment and share about it.

uttam, thank you for sharing your thoughts on the movie. Will definitely share any hopeful news I get to hear about the film.

Preet Waraich, nice to know. :) What a coincidence.. I was 8 too at the time! Exciting times.

Nishant, hey there! Thanks for stopping by. What a great idea to make a list of 100 favorite Indian movies. If nothing, I think these comments will move any person having any access or whereabouts of this movie and will definitely want to share it with us. I am hopeful. :)

Ishk, thanks for dropping by. No news yet. Still waiting.. it's like we all are virtually sitting around waiting for this magical movie. One day! Hopefully soon. I day-dream of this movie playing in a theater and making silver jubilees and all kinds of famous stuff. :)

Ashish, thank you so much for sharing that. I was able to view the two short clips that came up on the search. Such wonderful clips.. I enjoyed viewing them despite of their VHS quality. Appreciate you sharing this and to hamzazahoor786 for uploading them.

Wow! I wonder how Ashish found it out on Youtube and where from our friend from Pakistan, hamzazahoor786, got these clips.

Nevertheless, got to watch at least a part of the movie, if not full. And, thankfully, the dubbed Hindi version of it. Brings back good old memories. Incidentally, the Part 4 of this video is the only scene I vaguely remember from this movie, the scene where all the cobras hang from a tree to save Gauri.

Respected SirLong back i was fortunate to watch the outstanding movie on the relationship between human being and monkey. Till date I had not such a wonderful movie with an outstanding message to society and its cultural elements, especially the rich heritage of relationship of human beings with animals in Indian society. Animals know the language of selfless love and affection whereas humans fails bestow selfless love and affection towards its fellow beings. In modern world where the modern man has chosen wrong direction of leading the life which has made the humans mentally deranged searching and researching the existence of true love. The director and his team deserve salute from the core heart.With regardsDr. Anil Paliwal

HiI watched this movie at age 8 or 9 when it was released in theatres in this part of the world (Trivandrum, Kerala) as a Malayalam movie KADINTE MAKKAL. I think its originally a Telugu movie. I came across this blog when trying to come up with a copy of the dvd/ vcd of themovie- and I am happy to see many a 33+ kid out here eagerly waiting to see this movie along with their kids. The poster reveals some information. the script (in Malayalam) was written by M.T. Vasudevan Nair- and was produced by Gandhimati Balan. I am also writing (via snail mail) to Mr. Gandhimathi Balan regarding this movie and urging him to release the dvd of the same soon- ie, the Malayalam version. shall keep all posted regarding developments if anyNarayan Radhakrishnan

well after long time i came to know any progress but with no hope i came i had drop email to Moser Bear to purchase the right for this film from Door Darshan or National film, but no reply also write and email to many Copy right co. like shamroo. Tips and many more but they could not get this movie so far from original source .. if any one confirm where is this movie lying, then i am ready to go to that place and pull out the movie from my pocket .. such movie such seen and sight location in this movie still in my mind and want to see on screen i show this movie when i was 8 to 9 years old and it was shown on Nehru chacha Birthday day when it was shown in DDwell hope some thing will work out or best option we all will write together to National Door Darshan so might this goverment can reply

HelloFriends!!!!!!!i am highly appreciate to all of you for trying to bring this tremendous movie back.Dear Friends i request to you all please do the job and bring this full movie back I am also thankful to this blogger.